No Red Carpet

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30934, 15 December 1965, Page 1

No Red Carpet

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Dec. 14. The president of the New Zealand Rugby Union, Mr T. H. Pearce, intends to protest at the treatment he received from Department of Agriculture inspectors at Auckland airport today when he returned from a round-the-world tour. “They held me up for an hour and went ducking and diving through my luggage to look at my shoes,” said Mr Pearce tonight. “It was a disgraceful performance. They kept me there until the end and I was the only one—because I had put on my declaration that I had come from South Africa.” Mr Pearce was guest speaker at the Rand sportswriters’ annual dinner in Johannesburg on December 2.

“They made a point of looking at a pair of shoes in my bag, which I had not worn in South Africa. They did not bother to look at the shoes I had on. Anyhow, it is 10 days since I was in South Africa.

“My entry at the international airport in Auckland was the most disgraceful entry a citizen of New Zealand returning to his own country could be subjected to,” said Mr Pearce. “I intend to make a protest to the Minister about it.”

Mr T. D. Flynt, the chief agricultural inspection officer at Mangere, said tonight that Mr Pearce’s effects were given treatment according to the regulations set down for people arriving in New Zealand from South Africa.